


strength and desperation / the roles are reversed

by deveil



Series: Kandreil For When I Am Sad (which is often) [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, M/M, Multi, POV Kevin Day, Post-Canon, Post-TKM, aftg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:28:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27221242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deveil/pseuds/deveil
Summary: andrew is sick and his confused, idiot boyfriends try and figure out what to do.
Relationships: Kevin Day/Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: Kandreil For When I Am Sad (which is often) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987342
Comments: 5
Kudos: 101





	strength and desperation / the roles are reversed

**Author's Note:**

> "Maybe we'd never be free of those shadows. Not completely.  
> But we'd still fight like hell.  
> And maybe that's all that mattered.” -Wolfsong, TJ Klune

Andrew was indestructible. He was invincible. He was the district’s best goalie. He hid knives in his armbands and wouldn’t hesitate to gut anyone if they got in his way. He promised to protect Neil and Kevin from the yakuza, and they believed him. And Kevin knew that if Andrew’s medication had not been in the way, if the Moriyamas had actually come for him and Neil, Andrew would have done everything in his power to protect them.

So how?

How did Andrew fall victim to something as insignificant as the flu?

Andrew blinked blearily up at Kevin as Kevin dabbed at his forehead with a cloth. They hadn’t even seen it coming, him and Neil. it was flu season, and the rest of the Foxes were talking about flu shots, and Kevin and Neil, like the idiots they were, ignored them. Hindsight was a bitch.

Andrew pushed at Kevin’s wrist and Kevin moved the cloth. Andrew glared up at him. “You’re getting water in my eyes.”

Even his voice, one of the things that grounded Kevin the most when the Nest threatened to pull him under, was weak and scratchy. Kevin felt like crying. Or punching a wall. Or both. 

Neil walked into the room at that moment with an armful of assorted medication and blankets, and Kevin turned in time to see Neil’s eyes widen at the sight of Andrew. “You’re awake. How are you feeling?”

Andrew stared at Neil for a moment. “I am,” he said, with the tact of a man recently bedridden, “dying.”

Neil fumbled the medicine and blankets in his hurry to kneel beside Kevin. He dumped his load onto Kevin and picked up the cloth Kevin had dropped in his alarm at having copious amounts of cloth and medicine thrust upon him. Neil promptly began dabbing at Andrew’s forehead. Exactly as Kevin had been doing a moment ago. 

Kevin gently set the blankets and medicine on the ground and stood up, his knees popping as he did so. Him and Neil had approached their teachers and requested the day off, but Kevin was beginning to think that they should have taken turns. The dorm’s bedroom felt small and stuffy with all three of them crammed into it, and his and Neil’s frenetic energy and Andrew’s lack thereof was grating on his nerves. 

Kevin didn’t even know why they were both so shaken. Him, he could understand. But Neil? Neil had gone through so much and come through, not necessarily unscathed, but stronger and harder than before. Kevin was not naive enough to be jealous of Neil’s hardships, but sometimes, in the darker moments when Riko and Tetsuji haunted him, he wondered, briefly, whether he would handle everything differently if he had half the strength that Neil did. 

Neil murmured to Andrew and Andrew’s eyes slid closed, either from disinterest or exhaustion. Kevin pressed a kiss to the top of Neil’s head and combed Andrew’s hair back with his fingers before leaving the room. There was something he read somewhere that if one was to catch the flu, one had to… drink water? Inhale...water? That didn’t sound right. He was pretty sure inhaling water could kill you. 

He rummaged through their cupboards in search of something, anything to help with Andrew’s predicament. Fluids were probably a good thing. And steam. Maybe that could help too. He heard somewhere that inhaling steam helped to clear sinuses.

He took out a questionable-looking kettle and filled it with water before placing it on the stove. Tea would help. Tea always helped. He flicked on the element and went back into the bedroom.

And stopped. Neil’s voice was just barely above a whisper, but Kevin could still pick out the melody. Neil was singing. 

The first time Neil sang, he was drunk off his ass and half-asleep. But it was undeniable that the guy could sing. The next day, Neil had denied everything. No matter how much Kevin had needled him about it, Neil had kept that part of him tucked away where no one but him could see it.

And now here he was, taking out that exact piece of himself that he had protected so carefully, and polishing it to a shine for the small universe that contained only them. For a moment, Kevin stood in the doorway, spellbound, letting Neil’s voice wrap around him and wash away the tension in his limbs. And then Neil turned and saw him, and Kevin was afraid that Neil was going to stop, but Neil only smiled and Kevin was helpless to do anything but smile back. 

Andrew’s eyes were closed and his breathing steady when Kevin seated himself beside Neil. Neil sagged against Kevin with a sigh. “It seems almost funny that Andrew’s sick with the flu,” he said, voicing Kevin’s earlier thoughts. “But not haha funny. More like ‘Santa’s real but he goes around stealing kids instead of giving gifts’ sort of funny.”

Kevin frowned. “That’s not funny at all.”

Neil huffed a laugh. “No. No it’s not.” He reached up to push a piece of hair off Andrew’s forehead. “It’s not funny at all."

They sat in silence for a while, the only sound Andrew’s breathing. Kevin picked up a blanket and wrapped it around Neil’s shoulders, who had started to doze off against Kevin’s side. Neil started and blinked up at Kevin, and Kevin felt something twist inside his chest.

“You know,” Neil said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, “I don’t even know why I feel so upset about this. It’s only the flu. He’ll get better.”

Kevin said, “So why do I feel like he’s going to die?”

Neil nodded, his gaze drifting towards Andrew. “It makes no sense.”

Andrew coughed a little and they both startled, but Andrew didn’t start choking, so Kevin and Neil relaxed against each other once again.

“I made tea,” Kevin said.

“We don’t have tea leaves.”

Kevin didn’t say anything for a moment. “I made hot water.”

Neil snorted. “Trust you to put too much effort into something we can easily get from the tap.”

“He’s supposed to be the protector,” Kevin said, after snatching the blanket from around Neil’s shoulders and wrapping it around himself. “I suppose we’re just out of sorts because the roles are reversed.”

Neil combed his fingers through Andrew’s hair, much as Kevin had done before he’d left the room. “When he promised to protect me from my father, I thought he was crazy.”

“You believed him though.”

Neil looked up at Kevin and seemed about to glare, but he gave up before he did. “To a degree. People do strange things when they’re desperate.” He glanced up at Kevin again. “Like trying to make tea without tea leaves.”

“Like bringing expired antibiotics into a sick room.” Kevin shook the bottle at Neil.

Neil took the bottle from him and stared at the label for a moment before chucking it into the living room. Kevin watched it go.

“But I don’t think he’s crazy. I think that all he is,” Neil said, “is strong.”

Kevin couldn’t agree more.

They both jumped when Andrew spoke. “As much as I love listening to you two chatter, I think I’m going to die if I don’t get some sleep immediately.”

There was a moment of contained chaos, in which Kevin and Neil attempted to cover up their conversation, and Andrew called them on their bullshit and demanded a cup of water as compensation, and Kevin poured him a cup of his would-be tea had they not forgotten to buy tea leaves at the grocery store the week before.

And then Andrew put down his cup and placed one hand on Neil’s cheek, and the other on Kevin’s. “I am only as strong as I am now,” he said, “because of the hardships I’ve endured. And you both would be lying if you said you’re weak because of them. No,” he interrupted when Kevin and Neil tried to speak. “I know both of you look down on yourselves for how awfully you think you handle everything. I will only say this once, because you should only need to hear this once, and the only reason I am saying this out loud is because this flu is eating away at my brain, but your being here, alive, is so much stronger than you realize. Your being here, alive, is one of the biggest _fuck-off_ gestures to your father”—he looked to Neil—”and to Riko”—he looked to Kevin—”that you could manage.”

He dropped his hands and flopped back onto his pillow, as if exhausted. As if he hadn’t just turned Kevin’s whole world right-side up. “Now either leave the room or be quiet. I want sleep.”

Neil looked to Kevin, and Kevin looked to Neil. A silent agreement passed between them, and then they both climbed onto Andrew’s mattress, careful to avoid touching him or encroaching on his space. This resulted in Kevin on his back beside Andrew, with Neil sprawled on top of him, his ear against his chest. Andrew muttered something that sounded vaguely like a number, and then he turned onto his side and flung an arm over Neil’s shoulders and slid a hand into Kevin’s hair, and Kevin, in the arms of the ex-butcher’s son and a contagious, sniffling mess, felt, for the first time in a long time, safe and loved and warm.

The next day, Neil and Kevin called in sick. They had contracted the flu.

**Author's Note:**

> me: i have to focus on school  
> my idiot brain: kandreilkandreilkandreilkandre  
> 


End file.
